ROSEN'S RIAA SUCCESSOR TO FACE UNMET TASKS

Rosen announced her delayed resignation late Wed. She said she wanted to spend more time with her young twins. Although resignation for personal reasons often is PR code for executive’s firing, in this case it’s true, said executive of another D.C.- based industry assn., who said on condition of anonymity that his information came from employee and policy board member of RIAA. “She’s had a really hard job, and she’s done a pretty good job for being such a target,” said executive, whose group finds itself on same and different sides as RIAA, depending on issue.

Rosen led RIAA to position on front ranks of war to protect copyright material from unauthorized digital copying. “She’s done an incredible job on Capitol Hill representing the industry, having built it into a giant in a way others may not have been able to,” Harvard Law School asst. prof. Jonathan Zittrain said. Assn. and its allies scored great victories in Congress, as with Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and throughout judiciary, as in litigation against peer-to-peer networks including Napster and Aimster. But similar file-sharing services continue to flourish, notably KaZaA; music sales remain in a multiyear slump; online services backed by big labels haven’t taken off, despite 2002 strides; and more aggressive copy-protection legislation is stuck in Congress, although Rep. Lofgren (D-Cal.) said at least with mandatory copy-control technology bill of Sen. Hollings(D- S.C.) RIAA’s aim was leverage in intraindustry standards negotiations not statute enactment.

“The RIAA has had some missteps, and I don’t know that that’s Hilary’s responsibility,” fair-use booster Lofgren said. “I think that really reflects the record labels.”

Rosen’s resignation statement acknowledged more than once that she and her industry hadn’t accomplished all they needed to: “RIAA has much to do to address these issues [digital music protection and business development] as well as help the companies transition the music consumer to the exciting offerings everyone has been working so hard to deliver in the legitimate online music business. We must also work with our partners at retail, in the creative and technology industries and with governments worldwide to promote the future growth of the music industry.”

Observers said RIAA Pres. Cary Sherman was well-qualified to move up to Rosen’s slot but might prefer remaining less in limelight. “I think it [the transition] could have policy implications” in terms of assn.’s effectiveness in influencing outcomes, Zittrain said: “There’s a million ways to scale a mountain.”

Boucher said it wasn’t fruitless to call for successor to turn RIAA away from IP protectionism and toward much more open Internet distribution. “That is what real leadership is about,” he said. “One clear reality is the record industry through resort to litigation alone will never defeat peer-to-peer file- sharing. Therefore, more creative business plans, including more aggressive use of the Internet for the businesses’ own purposes, are required.” In practice, even formidable assn. head such as Rosen couldn’t override inertia of her membership, unidentified assn. executive said. Substantive policy at RIAA comes from stylistically conservative corporate executives fixed on their own businesses’ bottom lines, he said. Whether Rosen uses freedom of her lame-duck year to push labels to move faster than they have depends in part on her career plans and how diplomatic she thinks she must remain, he said.